China has taken a further step towards prising open the Canadian energy market
after the state-owned PetroChina agreed to buy nearly half of a shale oil
and gasfield for $2.2 billion.

Phoenix Duvernay Gas, PetroChina’s Canadian subsidiary, signed a deal
yesterday with Encana for a 49.9 per cent interest in a shale field in
Alberta that is estimated to hold nine billion barrels of oil.

Encana said that the deal would enable it to develop the field twice as
quickly as had been planned originally. It is producing oil from five wells
but has only two rigs drilling new areas.